Bistro Sun

Much like what happened to that stretch of Kaimuki (anchored by Town and 12th Avenue Grill), this section of Moili'ili has seen a few new restaurants open over the last several months.  Restaurants such as Spices , Aki-No-No and Bistro Sun have brought a new flavor to the neighborhood around old timers such as Imanas Tei, Sushi King and India House.  What does this mean?  For the residents of the neighborhood it definitely means more eating options.

As a frequent visitor to Spices, which is located up the block, I have often walked past this place wondering exactly what was served here.  According to the signage, this is an Italian Fusion restaurant.  But what kind of fusion food did it serve?  My curiosity finally got the best of me and I decided to pop on in.

My first visit here was a while back and the visit I'm going to describe here, is the latest and most recent one, just about a week ago.  "Irasshaimase!" (Welcome), is what I heard when I walked in the door at about 1:00 pm.  Glancing around, I found the restaurant to be quite empty.  There was just a family of four at a table in the corner, and a couple seated at the table next to mine. 

The restaurant's decor is whimsical and eclectic.  If you've been to the homes of a few friends of mine, you'd probably see something similar.  A mish-mash of styles much too difficult to describe, I thought it odd to see an artifical palm near the entrance and the string of Christmas lights that went clear across the middle of the walls.

Since I was here for lunch, I noticed a few specials on the menu.  After some thought, I decided to have the "Bistro's Original Daily Pilaf Special (2 choices)".  When I asked what the choices were, I was told that I could select either the Sicilian Pilaf or the Gorgeous Antonio Pilaf.  Just on the name alone, I decided to have the Gorgeous Antonio Pilaf lunch special (US$7.95).

According to the menu, this lunch special includes salad, soup of the day, garlic bread & coffee or ume kobucha tea.  What a deal! 

The first dish to be served was the soup.

It was a tomato based soup with thin slivers of onion and sliced cabbage floating around in it.  On top, was a generous sprinkling of dried oregano (I think).  Although the soup was a little thin, I loved the rich tomato flavor.  It was just enough to start off the meal.

Next came the the salad.

Thinly julienned pieces of cabbage, some lettuce and cubes of tomato were covered in an olive oil and citrus based dressing.  When I tried to coax the dressing ingredients out of my waitress and the manager, I was told that it was a secret.  The dressing was really sour, and while the manager said it contained lemon juice, I thought it was made with yuzu kosho. 

Here was the garlic bread.

Crisp and crunchy, but not really garlic-y.

And finally, the Gorgeous Antonio Pilaf.  Does it look gorgeous or what?

A mound of rice was topped with a corned beef hash sauce, a couple cubes of beef, some cheese and the chef's "secret" sauce.  The rice pilaf, seemed to have been cooked with some tomato sauce before being baked in the oven with the rest of the ingredients.  The cubes of beef on top were fork tender, while the cheese added a bit of saltiness to counteract the sweetness of the "secret" sauce.  The rice itself was savory so there was a really complex flavor party going on here.  In fact, the sauce was so good, I ended up soaking up what was left with those two pieces of garlic bread.  You should have seen me in action.

Here's a closer look at that rice.

Not one to leave without dessert, I ordered Bistro's sautéed banana (US$5.95).

Slices of banana were first pan fried with a little white wine (I think that's what the manager said).  Next, the bananas were "returned" to their peels and topped with a healthy drizzle of chocolate sauce (fudge?).  The dessert wass then garnished with some whipped cream, a couple of mint leaves and a scoop of vanilla ice cream.  While I liked the flavor of this dessert, it was from different from what the manager described it to be, so I was expecting just a little more.

Bistro Sun
2671 South King Street
Telephone:  808.946.7580

Comments

[Big BoK]

Hey..Reid,
Everything looks too yummy.. but a little heavy for me.. for lunch.. heh!!
btw.. off topic.. i just learnt that TV Series LOST was filmed in hawaii..!! now how cool is that..??

[Reid]

Hi Big BoK,

Even though it looks heavy, it really wasn't. The rice may have been a little heavy, but I'm sure you could have shared it.

I know that Lost is filmed here, but can you believe I've never seen the show? I don't really have much time to watch TV. =(

[Kirk]

Hi Reid - Wow, sounds like a nice meal, with a really nice price! When "fusion" works it can be an eye-opening and palate pleasing experience. Unfortunately in many cases it fails. We had a Japanese - Italian Restaurant here that was terrible, needless to say it was gone in a few months. The pilaf looks almost loco-moco-ish, I'd just need an egg, and I could have it for breakfast!

[Clinton]

Kirk,

Some fusion food is good. Cuisine Tony on Kapiolani has good service and the food is above average. There is another place on McCully that my aunt took us which is Vietnamese Italian which was sort of different. I had one of their specialties which was oxtail simmered in some sort of burgundy sauce which I liked. I think you may be thinking of Pietro's which is Japanese Italian fusion that didn't last too long over here in Torrance. Their pasta was really good but I think people were not too ready for that kind of experience yet. I still see their salad dressings sold in stores so they may be still around. I don't know how the other restaurant in Honolulu is doing?

[Jo]

Japanese Italian huh? Well, I can see Korean fusion. I've made cheese Mandu before! ::grins::

Reid, that bowl of soup looks so unappetizing I think I would have left at that point. I like a thin tomato broth for a cabbage soup, but that looks more like dishwater.

[Kirk]

Clinton - And some fusion is really bad....especially when people try to ride the "Pacific Rim" cuisine wave. I call it con-fusion cuisine. I've had some really bad attempts at "fusion" here in San Diego.

[Kirk]

Sorry to be so wordy - the name of the place was Japasta, or something like that - yuck!

[Jo]

Ya know, with all the cooking methods and flavors I've been working with, one of the best fusion methods I've encountered is using the seasonings from one place with the cooking methods of another. Case in point, the meat jun I made last night. The basic idea is VERY much like a Spanish cooking method, but not quite the same. Paired with spinach that incorporated Korean style "blanch first then cook" but using bacon and onions to flavor... It made for a delicious meal that wasn't overpowered by anything.

[808650foodie]

Clinton-

Cuisine Tony is actually pretty good Chinese food. We enjoyed that place the last time we were there. I didn't recall seeing anything fusion on the menus...just strict Cantonese fare but prepared quite well. Just as good as some of our decent SF places.

Japasta??? A name like that deserves to be shut down ;-)

Anyone in Hawaii like Verbano's Italian? I used to like it when I was living there, but now that I've been to Rome and sampled Italian fare here, Verbano's food seems overly rich with too much cheese and olive oil...

[Kirk]

808650 - I used to like Verbano's as well, are they still around? I liked the Chicken Marsala there.

[Clinton]

808650foodie,

Maybe we're thinking of a different place? I'm refering to the place on the makai side of Kapiolani Blvd with the green canopy out front. The owner waited and served us his specialties like stewed oxtail sort of like South American style(?) and some other African dish. I was there as a guest of my cousin so I was unfamiliar with all of the dishes served. They may have some Chinese dishes on the menu but I didn't take notice.

[nai]

i like verbano's--i always order the most odoriferous (heh) dish there--the linguine anchovy al olio with chicken. it's a simple dish of pasta with tender, roasted chicken pieces and oodles of garlic and anchovy in olive oil...AND i ALWAYS ask for extra anchovy and garlic. I'm so lucky my beau loves me so much he'll still kiss me after eating that one, cause I always need three Listerine strips after that meal. I love that dish so much I'll order it at Assagio's as well (the menus seem almost exactly the same; just a matter of execution. I think Verbano's on King wins out a little over the other Verbano's on Waialae by just a skosh and I only go to Assagio's in Ala Moana if I'm already at the mall. If I'm in Millilani and ono for pasta, I'll go to Assagio's there, but now that we have Wal-Mart in town, I rarely have a reason to traverse down H-2. But I digress...). My beau likes one of the dishes with chicken liver at Verbano's (there's two...and while I can't remember the difference).

As for pasta in italy versus pasta in the US, I was just talking to one of the nuns with whom I work (Catholic hospital), and she lived in italy for a time. she said there are HUGE differences between italian pasta and italian-american pasta and commercial italian-american pasta. Sister (and you can call nuns just that---"Sister"--trips me out, even if I have been working here for years. Again, I digress....) said that Italians would be aghast at what is being served as pasta in the US. They would even turn their noses at our pasta noodles--they'll accept only a certain quality of semolina to make noodles.

Regardless, even if Verbano serves only faux pasta that's tuned to the American palate, I'll keep happily continue engorging myself on stinky garlic and anchovy pasta...until someone is kind enough to make me a "real" Italian pasta dish....

[Clinton]

808650foodie,
I found out the place I was mentioning and this is it:

Tony Cuisine
1617 Kapiolani Blvd
Honolulu, HI 96814

It's a Chinese Italian fusion restaurant which I thought was pretty good. I knew I wasn't dreaming! Sad to say all I remember was the oxtail...I guess it's that "old timer's" disease that's catching up with me!

[Trisha]

Hi!

I work a block away and I have been to this place three times. I really like it. The service is also excellent. I like their Japanese hamburger steak.

The soup may look unapetizing, but it is really quite good. The like to serve light soups, consume style. This happens to have tomatoes in it.

And I like the portions- not too big. You get full enough though.

[Reid]

Hi Kirk,

I like fusion too at times, and this one was quite good. The only thing I really didn't care for was the overly sour salad dressing. There are actually quite a few fusion places here -- Pietro, Cuisine Tony, Kit N Kitchen and now Bistro Sun. There used to also be a Vietnamese Italian place called Smooth. The name changed and I'm still wondering if I should check it out or not.

Hi Clinton,

Cuisine Tony has a few fusion dishes, but they also have traditional Chinese (Cantonese I think) food as well. I'm not sure how long ago you had the Vietnamese Italian food, but the only place like that used to be Smooth. It's now called Pho Tuan Loi (I think).

Hi Jo,

The look of the soup is actually deceiving. It was really quite tasty. I never thought of it as looking like dishwater though. LOL!

Hi 808650foodie,

I believe Cuisine Tony does serve Italian Chinese dishes, but I haven't been there in a while. I'm planning on going back soon to do a little research. =)

As far as Verbano is concerned, I haven't been there in a while either, but I remember liking the food at the location on South King. Maybe I need to go back there as well....

Hi Kirk,

Verbano is still around. The South King location does more business than the Kaimuki one though. In fact, I'm not sure if the Kaimuki one is still around. I should have checked, I was just at Big City Diner last night.

Hi Clinton,

You were correct. The place you're thinking of is indeed Cuisine Tony. It's right Nagisa-Tei.

Hi Nai,

The linguine anchovy olio is my favorite dish too. I always have it at Assagio, but I've never had it at Verbano. I like the Ala Moana Assagio better than the Mililani one though.

Hi Clinton,

You probably remember the oxtail at Cuisine Tony because that's one of their specialties....and not because of old age! =)

Hi Trisha,

I have to agree with you about the staff there. I was greeted by both the owner and the manager. Everyone was so friendly and very helpful too.

The portion size here is just right for lunch and the price is right as well. I do hope they do well. The restaurant actually seems out of place there. I think they would do better if they were closer to Ala Moana or in Waikiki.

[Jo]

Well I'm certainly glad to hear that it tasted better than it looked. I adore tomato everything (which explains a lot in our garden) and even made tomato soup for lunch the other day (from garden to table in less than 30 minutes!). With that consistancy they might want to consider presentation and acquire steep sided bowls or red bowls or SOMETHING that will make it look a little better at the table. Geez I'm fussy today!

[Scott]

Bistro Sun is run by the most obnoxious person in the world. A friend and I were trying to catch up over lunch and the guy wouldn't shut up and leave us alone. The food was average at best. Confusion, not Fusion.